Bishop to perform exorcism of entire Colombian city of Buenaventura

By

Daniel Uria

Colombian Marines patrol a neighborhood in Buenaventura, Colombia, on May 21, 2017. A Catholic bishop plans to spray holy water over the city on Sunday as part of an exorcism to dispel the crime, violence and corruption in the city. File Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA

July 10 (UPI) -- A Catholic bishop in Colombia plans to perform an exorcism for an entire city this weekend by spraying holy water from a helicopter.

Monsignor Ruben Dario Jaramillo Montoya, bishop of the city of Buenaventura, will use a navy helicopter to spread the holy water while saying a prayer for the city on Sunday in hopes of exorcising it of demons he believes are responsible for violence, crime and corruption in the city.

"We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura from the air and pour holy water onto it ... to see if we exorcise all those demons that are destroying our port," he told a local radio station. "So that God's blessing comes and gets rid of all the wickedness that is in our streets."

A Human Rights Watch report in 2014, named Buenaventura Colombia's most dangerous place, stating that criminal groups are active in many of the city's neighborhoods, dismembering people and dumping them in the sea among other crimes.

"In Buenaventura, we have to get rid of the devil to see if we can return to the tranquility that the city has lost with so many crimes, acts of corruption and so much evil and drug trafficking," Montoya said.

Life in the city has improved some since 2014, as residents have worked with international human rights groups to improve housing conditions and create a "humanitarian zone" free of armed violence.